5.17.2010

Sorry for the long delay in posting anything.Dealing with a bunch of real-world crap, plus I’ve been busy painting Tyranids for the annual Memorial Day Apocalypse game my friends and I have.Yes, I’m finally going to field my Tyranid army.It only took eleven years.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure the geeky blog here didn’t get neglected too much, so I thought I’d look at a money-saving project I did a few years back. As I’ve mentioned, one of my main armies is the Relictors and they grew out of a radical Daemonhunters force I built.One of the mainstays of any radical force is, of course, the Daemonhosts.

None of the GW Daemonhost models really did it for me, though.As it happened, I had a few frames worth of Warhammer Fantasy zombie parts, and I thought I’d be able to piece together something more dynamic and appealing.So I gathered up some stuff and went to work on M’ndragora and Deminos.

The image of someone in full stocks and chains was firm in my mind, so I decided to go with that for M’ndragora.I picked over the zombie bitz until I had a body and limbs in a good, dynamic pose (keeping in mind that he was going to be floating in the air).His head is the bound-and-stitched one from the old Chaos mutations sprue, which seemed very appropriate.One of his feet is actually the bare foot and calf one zombie hand is using for a club.The stocks help hide the join.

The stocks themselves are just strips of plastic.I cut them to size and marked where they lined up with the arm, neck, and legs.Then I carved them out with an XActo blade and smoothed the holes with a file.I glued them around the body, and then also added a trim piece to the front and back.

Helpful Hint-- This project is a great example of why you should always hang on to scraps of plastic.It may seem silly to hang onto a 1”x1/2” piece, but on 40K scale that’s gigantic.It could be a door big enough for a Space Marine to fit through.Both of these models were built with leftover scrap from other projects.

M’ndragora is pretty much done at this point, but the details helped make the model.The purity seal came from some Space Marines.I shamefully admit all the locks were a special purchase back when you could buy individual bitz from GW.They’re from the Cherubael figure for the Inquisitor game.Not cheap at all.Although on this scale it wouldn’t be hard to do very passable ones from green stuff.

Helpful Hint--If you ever need chains for 40K, go hit your local 99 Cents Store, Big Lots, or similar place.Go look at all the jewelry for pre-teen girls.It’s the stuff that’s kind of stylish but still very cheap.Sift through a few and you’ll find some that are perfect chains.I got about twenty inches worth of the chain for these models for two dollars.

Deminos took a bit more work.I got the two straightest zombie arms and then used putty to make them look good stretched out perpendicular from his body.His head is the same Chaos mutations one again.I had to cut and pose the legs with a little putty so they’d be side-by-side and crossed at the ankles.And, yeah, that’s the same bare foot again, too.

The cross is double-thick plastic to give it some real heft.You can’t tell in the picture but there are a few notches cut into it to help make it look like scarred metal.There’s also an Imperial eagle from the tank sprue (back when the Imperial tank sprue had a lot more cool stuff on it) on the back that lines up with his shoulders.

I used up another five or six inches of the chain here for detail.I had to try wrapping it a few different ways before I found one that looked symmetrical and binding but also left the eagle exposed in the back.Those big bolts and hex-hunts are off some Ork hubcaps.The padlock is one last one from the Cherubael bitz.

It’s worth mentioning that after getting Deminos assembled I had this sudden religious crisis.After all, in the age of the Imperium wouldn’t this poor sap be nailed to a large capital ‘I’ or something shaped like an eagle?Peace of mind came from my friend Marcus, who pointed out that the cross was a convenient shape people were getting nailed to long before the rise of Christianity and probably still were 40,000 years in the future.

Both Daemonhosts got mounted on modified flying bases so they’d be hovering high above the ground.It’s also great to see them looming over an enemy squad.

As I’ve said before, painting is not my strong suit, so here’s the quick version of what I did.Their skin is Ice Blue, drybrushed down to Bleached Bone to accent the fact that this is a dead body animated by the forces of Chaos.Their clothes and binding straps are Red Gore so they tie into the rest of the Daemonhunters force.The padlocks and aquilla are Tin Bitz drybrushed with Shining Gold (to show how sanctified and pure they are).

That’s M’ndragora and Deminos (although it’s worth noting M’ndragora fell off his base while I was getting these “beauty shots,” so here he’s just stuck on a flying base with some earthquake putty).Not the most inexpensive things I’ve ever shown off here at the Grim Cheapness, but still far cheaper than the thirty-odd dollars it would cost you for two GW Daemonhost figures.

...There Is Only War!!!

I'm a long-time Warhammer 40,000 fan who thinks there's a viable middle ground between the folks who insist on dropping a few hundred dollars to get a usable army and the people who show up with a rubber dinosaur to represent a Carnifex or some green army men bulking out their Imperial Guard platoon.

Don't get me wrong. I love Games Workshop's models and I hate seeing a milk carton standing in for a Land Raider. But when a financial crunch forced me to become a lot more thrifty with my toy soldiers, I didn't stop playing. I just found ways to customize and create perfectly usable units with the resources I had. And I've done it enough that I think it's worth sharing with anyone who's interested.

So save a few frozen pizza boxes, grab some white glue, and let's build an Imperial Knight that any loyal servant of the Emperor would be honored to have fighting alongside them.

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